OceanSide church of Christ
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LESSONS ABOUT LIFE (1)
Victor M. Eskew
INTRODUCTION
A. God has bestowed many precious gifts upon us: our souls, our bodies, and our health.
B. Another precious thing He has given to us is life itself
1. Life is defined as animated existence.
2. Life has also been defined as the period of time between conception and death when the spirit occupies the body.
C. Sadly, man has greatly diminished the value of life.
1. We don’t take care of the life that we have.
2. We do not protect life as we should.
3. We often viciously take life.
D. WE need to talk more about the subject of life. We have entitled this lesson: “Learning about Life.”
I. GOD AND LIFE
A. One of the inherent qualities of God is life.
1. We can describe God by saying: “God is life.”
2. John 5:26a
For as the Father hath life in himself…
3. This fact enables the theory of Creation to trump the theory of evolution.
a. Evolution does not begin with life. It begins with lifeless matter.
b. Creation begins with life. It begins with the living God.
B. As life, God is the source of all other life.
1. Verses (Ps. 39:9; Job 33:4; Acts 17:28)
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
2. God bestowed this life at the beginning.
a. In the water (Gen. 1:20)
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life…
b. On the earth (Gen. 1:24)
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind…
c. Man (Gen. 2:7)
And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
II. THE BEGINNING OF LIFE
A. God miraculously created Adam and Eve and instilled life into each of them.
1. Man (Gen. 2:7)
2. Woman (Gen. 2:22)
And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
B. God gave this couple the ability to procreate, that is, to beget or generate offspring.
1. Genesis 1:28a
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…
2. Procreation became part of what is called the “natural laws of God.”
C. When does life begin?
1. The common sense argument:
a. Human beings are composed of living cells.
b. When a man and a woman reproduce, a living cell is first formed.
c. What kind of cell is it? A human cell.
d. It is imperfect, or better, immature in the womb, but it is human life.
1) It will take approximately 9 months before it will be viable outside the womb.
2) It will take another 18 years to grow into a mature man or woman.
2. The human heart argument: The heart begins to be at 22 days (See Lev. 17:11).
For the life of the flesh is in the blood…
3. The picture of a baby at 12 weeks old (NOTE: The earliest premature baby to survive was born at 21 weeks and 6 days).
4. The Scriptural argument: the use of the word “babe” in the Bible
a. Luke 2:12
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
1) This baby was the baby Jesus who was born in Bethlehem.
2) The Greek word for “babe” is “brephos.”
3) NOTE: Jesus was outside of his mother’s womb at this time.
b. Luke 1:41
And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.
1) This babe was John the Baptist and was still in the womb at this time.
2) It is referred to by the same word, “brephos.”
c. See Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
1) Some would have us to believe that a baby in the womb in just part of the woman and not a separate, unique individual.
2) God saw Jeremiah as an individual in the womb.
III. THE ESSENTIALS FOR LIFE
A. We have already seen two essentials for life: God, and a man (husband) and a woman (wife). See I Timothy 5:14
B. Several other factors are essential for life.
1. A caring mother
a. Some mothers are so selfish and uncaring that they abort their children.
b. Some do not care enough about their children to quit their drugs, alcohol, and smoking.
c. Two examples:
1) The night before Lynndaya died, McKenney later told police, she took three different medications: the opioid Percocet, the anti-anxiety medication Xanax, and Subutex. Lynndaya’s grandmother noticed that McKenney’s “knees were buckling under her when she stood.” McKenney recalled that she later fed the infant but “didn’t know what she did with Lynndaya after that.”
The next morning, Lynndaya’s grandmother tried to wake McKenney, who lay at the foot of the bed. Twice, the grandmother asked where the baby was. Then she saw the corner of Lynndaya’s blanket beneath McKenney. “Oh my G…,” the grandmother told a still high McKenney, “you’re on that baby.”
According to the death report, the state of Kentucky ruled that McKenney’s neglect had caused her baby’s death.
2) In Utah, a 17-month old girl named Jaslynn Raquel Mansfield died last year of acute methadone toxicity. Her mother, Courtney Nicole Howell, was on prescription methadone during and after her pregnancy.
Howell told authorities that she twice used a syringe to mix the narcotic with Children’s Tylenol. Her reasoning: Jaslynn “wouldn’t eat or sleep and she wasn’t her normal baby anymore,” according to the 42-page police report marked “confidential.” Courtney admitted that she didn’t know what to do to get Jaslynn help,” the report said.
2. Breath is essential for life.
a. If a person is not able to breath for 3 to 5 minutes, he will die.
b. When a person dies, we often say: “He has breathed his last.”
3. Blood is essential for life.
a. The human body has between 1.2 to 1.5 gallons of blood in it.
b. If we lose more than 33% of our blood, death is certain.
c. Leviticus 17:11
For the life of the flesh is in the blood…
4. Nourishment is essential for life.
a. In order to survive, we must eat and drink.
1) The body can survive 4-6 weeks without food.
2) The body can survive 8-10 days without water.
b. Example: Esau was faint due to a lack of nourishment (Gen. 25:29, 32).
And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die…
5. The spirit is also essential to life.
a. James 2:26
For as the body without the spirit is dead…
b. Numerous times in the Bible, the text will state: “And he gave up the ghost” (Gen. 25:8, 17; 35:29; Lam. 1:19; Mark 15:37, 39; Luke 23:46; John 19:30; Acts 5:5; 12:23).
And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
CONCLUSION
A. In this lesson, we have just scratched the surface when it comes to “learning about life.”
1. God is life and the Giver of all life.
2. Life starts at the moment of conception.
3. In order to have life, there are some essentials that must be present.
B. In our next lesson, we will focus upon the idea of “Taking Life and Giving One’s Life.”
